In March 2016, 33-year-old Masopust will take over the management of Cinergy, which is part of the Tom Talent Group, from Walter Zollinger. Masopust has been COO of the company since 2015 and was already responsible for the operational business of the Teleboy and Cineman platforms. Before joining Cinergy, Masopust worked in account management for digital media companies at the American management consultancy Sapientnitro.

Victor Masopust

The company managed by Walter Zollinger over the past two years has further expanded its market leadership position in the cinema, film and online TV sector and now sees its main focus on target group-specific TV advertising and the sale of TV subscriptions in addition to cinema ticket sales. In particular, the collaboration with Apple, which offers an alternative to traditional TV providers with the Apple TV 4 Box, promises great growth potential. Zollinger will remain closely associated with Cinergy as delegate of the Board of Directors and COO of the Tom Talent Group. "As an independent and profitable online company with a monthly reach of 1.2 million users, we are now ideally positioned to benefit from market growth and change. We are delighted that we can continue on this exciting path with Victor Masopust at the helm," says Zollinger.

Walter Zollinger

On March 1, 2016, the "Swiss Internet TV Premium Network" was founded in collaboration with Wilmaa and is marketed exclusively by the Goldbach Group.

In collaboration with the agency Sanerstudio, the color scheme and design were adopted from the recently launched 20 Minutes app. Icons were adopted and standardized across all channels. For the first time, the most popular stories from the app are also given a platform in the print edition. This gives readers the opportunity to actively help shape the content. From spring, the fourth cover page will also be attractive for the advertising market; this can now be booked every day. The weather forecasts now have a place opposite the TV program.

"The design refresh is one of several recent launches. The youth channel 20 Minuten Tilllate was successfully launched as recently as February, and the Friday blog was adapted for French-speaking Switzerland in August 2015," explains Marco Boselli, Editor-in-Chief of 20 Minuten.

There are many videos and photos documenting SOS Children's Villages' global social work. But now, for the first time, donors can virtually experience the lives of the children in an SOS Children's Village. A4VR has created a custom virtual reality film for the organization that can be viewed using VR headsets from Google or Samsung.

The viewer feels as if they were in Africa themselves, accompanying Nala, a 10-year-old girl, through her daily life at the SOS Children's Village in Nairobi, Kenya. They can look around in all directions.

The virtual reality film was first presented on Tuesday, March 8, 2016, at the Swiss Marketing Day in Lucerne to illustrate the work of SOS Children's Villages. An interview with Jan Thiel, Creative Director at A4VR, can be found in the next print issue of *Werbewoche*.

The environmental organization was disturbed by statements such as: "Natural gas pollutes the environment less than heating oil, wood chips, pellets or imported coal-fired electricity" or: "Today, the most effective measure in terms of climate policy is to replace heating oil with natural gas". The Third Chamber of the Swiss Fairness Commission (SLK) upheld Greenpeace's complaint against VSG in two cases, as it announced on Tuesday. According to the statement, VSG was unable to substantiate either the claim "natural gas pollutes the environment less..." or the statement "the most effective measure in terms of climate policy" with neutral facts, such as expert opinions from independent third parties.

Advertisers are required by the Law against Unfair Competition, the principles of the SLK and a code of conduct to ensure that claims about products and services and their comparison with competing products are not false or misleading. Environmental advertising claims in particular must not convey unclear or vague ideas, and comparisons must only be made if a significant advantage is in prospect.

Also criticized petroleum advertising

Greenpeace was therefore also successful with another complaint against the Petroleum Association. The advertising statements objected to were: "Replacing an old oil heating system with a new oil heating system is in any case the most favorable variant", "Oil heating technology is often the most effective and economical way to achieve economical energy consumption and more climate protection" and "When it comes to choosing a heating system, from an environmental point of view, it is almost a toss-up which system one chooses". Both the assertion, "in each case the most favorable variant" and "the superlative assertion 'often the most effective and most economical way' could not be sufficiently substantiated", writes the SLK. On the other hand, the statement "in environmental terms, almost hopped like jumped" was a fuzzy idea about environmental friendliness. The complaint against a statement of the VSG and two further statements of the petroleum association were rejected. Thus, an advertisement with the sentence "If you now rely on a new natural gas heating system, nature thanks you" is not unfair, since according to the SLK "a new heating system is in general understanding always more environmentally friendly than an old one". The Petroleum Association was concerned with statements on the better environmental balance of new oil heating systems compared to old systems. Greenpeace Switzerland is pleased with the decision of the SLK "and expects that from now on no more disinformation will be practiced," the environmental organization said Tuesday. (SDA)

Greenpeace has filed a complaint with the Commission on Fair Trading and is also calling on the government to introduce mandatory warning labels.

The appearance was implemented in a dynamic visual world in a variety of ways. Isostar's brand ambassadors - Dario and Gianluca Cologna, Toni Livers (cross-country skiing), Lukas Flückiger (biking), Viktor Röthlin (running), Florin and Andrea Salvisberg (triathlon) - are to lend additional power and relevance to the appearance as experts, with the statement: "Isostar takes me further". They accompany the target group on the website with training and nutrition tips.

The completely revised Isostar website convinces with the use of large images, which makes the appearance more modern and dynamic. The content is clearly structured and user-friendly and covers many exciting topics. Fans can follow the news of the numerous athletes and benefit from tips about sports nutrition. Information about the benefits, the application, the ideal time for consumption and the composition of the wide Isostar range provide valuable input for active athletes. The integrated Isostar Shop was thus refreshed and updated (new images, filter functions, detailed information, etc.) for the launch of the new products (Powertabs Cola and PET with L-Carnitine).

The brand refresh is framed with targeted sports activities at important Swiss sporting events. In the same course as the website, a rebranding of Isostar's brand presence was conceived. The handling of images of athletes and the products recommended for them were defined and recorded in a manual. The corporate typeface was modernized and the entire appearance was also extended to the print area.

Responsible at Isostar: Angelika Leemann (Marketing Manager), Sara Bätschmann (Brand Manager Isostar), Vanessa Kuster (Marketing Trainee). Responsible at Noord: Nicole Trasatti (brand concept), Katja Rüfenacht, Markus Reichenbach, Roger Mazzucchelli (design). Responsible at Strichpunkt: Martin Landolt and Matthias Rimann (website programming).

 

Björn Wenzel, CEO of the influencer marketing agency Lucky Shareman, points out that the platform is on the verge of becoming more professional for marketing purposes: «Currently, only theoretical reach and engagement rates for Instagram campaigns can be measured. The real numbers will be much higher. It’s only a matter of time before Instagram reports the actual reach figures.» Instagram expert Wenzel explains which four metrics are important for measuring the success of influencer campaigns on Instagram:

1. Interaction rate: Not just a performance metric, but also a quality and fake detector

The engagement rate is the key metric for measuring the success of influencer campaigns on Instagram. Through the Instagram API, advertisers can access the number of followers of the participating influencers, as well as the number of likes and comments. This data can then be used to calculate the engagement rate. On Instagram, it is the highest compared to all other social networks, regardless of whether the posts are organic or sponsored. Experience shows that for a successful campaign, it ranges between five and ten percent. If this KPI falls below four percent, the engagement rate serves as an indicator of quality and a way to detect fake accounts. Either the followers have lost interest in the influencer, or they were paid to engage.

2. Followers and Reach: Ad Impressions as a Math Problem

The number of followers of an Instagrammer determines the reach of influencer campaigns. In many cases, brands prefer to use ad impressions or views as a basis for calculation. Whether a campaign with seven million ad impressions is distributed via one Instagrammer with seven million followers or via seven Instagrammers with one million followers each is a question of the campaign concept.

3. Use of the campaign hashtag: beyond #love and #instamood

A campaign-specific hashtag can also be used as a KPI. This involves calculating the dissemination of the hashtag by users. The brand therefore compares how many posts it or the commissioned Instagrammer has distributed with the hashtag and how many users have used the keyword. This can be used to determine the additional reach of the campaign.

4. Followers of the brand's account: greater visibility as a positive side effect

The acquisition of followers for the brand Instagram account is not usually the main focus of campaigns, but it is a key figure that nevertheless says something about the success of the campaign. The Instagrammer should always post the company name with the image. This increases the visibility of the brand and the chance that the Instagrammer's followers will visit the brand account and follow it in turn.

«Instagram is what Facebook was five years ago. Investment levels are still low. Brands should get on board now,» Wenzel advises in a statement.

Influencer Marketing: Should Brands Focus on Instagram Now? Check out our poll (on the right)!
 

In 1971, during the development of the Internet precursor Arpanet, Tomlinson modified existing protocols so that electronic messages could also be sent between two computers. Before that, only users of one computer could leave messages for each other. At that time, years before the start of the PC era, computers were still large machines used by many people.

Tomlinson was also the one who resorted to the @ sign to designate the computer of the addressee. The symbol had originally been used by merchants to mark the unit price of a product - "for example, ten items @ $1.95," as Tomlinson himself later explained. He said he used the "at" (German: zu, bei) instead for spatial attribution. "It just made sense."

Tomlinson, on the other hand, couldn't remember the content of the first email. The test messages contained nothing memorable, he wrote on his website. "Most likely, the first message was QWERTYUIOP (the first letters on an English keyboard) or something like that."

Admitted to the Hall of Honor of the Internet Society

Tomlinson was inducted into the International Internet Society's "Hall of Honor" in the "Inventor" category in 2012. According to the organization, his email software was widely used for years and was an "exceptional innovative solution.

"A true technology pioneer, Ray was the man who created email for us in the early days of computer networks," highlighted his employer, U.S. defense contractor Raytheon. "His work changed the way the world communicates - and yet, for all his accomplishments, he remained humble, kind and generous."

Messages of condolence arrived from around the world. Google's Gmail team wrote on the short message service Twitter: "Thank you Ray Tomlinson for inventing email and making the @ sign popular." Vint Cerf, who is considered one of the fathers of the Internet and once worked at the U.S. military research agency Darpa, also lamented the "very sad news" of Tomlinson's passing. (SDA)

Teaser image: Duden.de
 

The marketing of the Swiss advertising inventory is handled exclusively by the sales teams of Zattoo and Goldbach. Goldbach Group AG is responsible for the aggregation of web TV channels and the bundling of qualitative in-stream video formats. Zattoo Schweiz AG focuses on marketing the Zattoo single sites for video, display, content and newsletter.

Oliver Knappmann (Zattoo) and Alexander Duphorn (Goldbach).

Zattoo has been bringing live TV to the Internet since 2006 and offers a selection of online TV channels from over 200 programs in Switzerland. According to surveys by NET-Metrix, Zattoo reaches up to one million unique clients per month with its service.

 

How are Swiss SMEs mastering the digital transformation? This question is at the heart of the "Digital Switzerland 2016" study conducted by Suissedigital and the HWZ Hochschule für Wirtschaft Zürich. The study is based on an online survey in which representatives of SMEs can now participate, as the trade association of Swiss communications networks writes on Presseportal.

Adaptation to digital realities

The Study surveys the progress (maturity level) and challenges of Swiss companies in the context of digital transformation. Digital transformation is understood to mean the adaptation of companies and organizations to digital realities, as well as the change and development of customer experiences, corporate processes and entire business models under the influence of digital applications and technologies.

Presentation of the results at the Suissedigital Day for SMEs

The results of the study will be presented on April 28, 2016 at the Suissedigital Day for SMEs in the Kursaal in Bern. Everyone who is interested in the concrete effects of digitalization in Switzerland is invited.
 

The fourth industrial revolution not only occupied IT experts and communications specialists at the world's largest IT trade fair, the Cebit in Hanover , but also smaller players - and Nemuk. In a short explanatory film, the agency has worked up the topic for its client Swisscom. The short video shows the course of the fourth industrial revolution so far and explains the needs of local companies in this challenging environment.

The client for the film was the Swisscom Enterprise Customers division, which describes itself as a "companion of the digital transformation" and positions itself as a companion for its customers in a new, networked world. The video is aimed at business customers of the ICT provider and visualizes the increasing digitization of processes in industry and the service sector. It shows how indispensable a good network is for the business success of every company. The implementation style deliberately makes use of clear lines and easy-to-understand icons. They illustrate the pace of digitization without shortchanging the viewer's sense of fun.
 

Responsible at Swisscom: Muriel Stirnimann, Michael Lieberherr. Responsible at Nemuk: Naomi Meran, Thierry Figini (concept, screenplay, project management). Design and animation: Konrad Mazanowski.

 

Swisscom - Wireless Network & Bundles from NEMUK AG on Vimeo.

Andreas Kaeser will be responsible for the further development of Abraxas' outsourcing business in the canton of Zurich and the German-speaking part of Switzerland. Kaeser has first-hand knowledge of the Swiss outsourcing landscape, according to an Abraxas press release. The graduate engineer and business economist began his IT career at UBS, where he gained experience in London, New York, Sydney and Zurich. He then held various positions at Swisscom. Among other things, he set up an IT service center for the energy sector and managed it for several years. Before joining Abraxas, he was responsible for the development and sales of the Business Outsourcing division for the healthcare and public market of Swiss Post Solutions.

"As Head of the Central Business Unit, I want to work with Abraxas customers to further develop our services and impress them with innovative services," says Kaeser.